Known for: The Fugitive, MIB and Coal Miner’s Daughter
Net worth: $85 million
At Harvard, where Tommy Lee Jones roomed with Al Gore and graduated cum laude in 1969, he played varsity football, as well. As an all-league offensive guard, he participated in the Harvard vs. Yale game known as “The Tie,” the most famous game in Ivy League history. He also appeared in undergrad theater productions. Students would find him in the sports locker room suiting up in costume for rehearsal! Acting won out. Now we know him as the big screen’s worst tough guy in films like MIB and The Fugitive .
In between stage productions, Jones starred on daytime soap One Life to Live. It was not exactly his career dream, but the part led him on the path to the podium where he accepted an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in The Fugitive. It also scored him a sequel. He became one of the best paid and most highly sought-after actors in the industry. Like many Hollywood greats, he’s tried his hand at directing and producing. His theatrical feature film debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada earned him the Best Actor Award at Cannes.
Tom Cruise
Known for: Risky Business and Top Gun
Net worth: $570 million
As one of the prettiest faces of the 1980s, Tom Cruise’s career kicked into high gear after filming The Outsiders and Taps . He turned down the lead role in Footloose to be in All the Right Moves and Risky Business . Mr. Cruise was well on his way to becoming the highest-paid actor ever. He was 18 when he moved to N.Y.C. to be a movie star. But first, he wanted to be a priest, having enrolled in a seminary at age 14. Today, as a Scientology spokesman of sorts, it seems he achieved both. And how! Cruise has worked with all the greats in Hollywood. From Stanley Kubrick to Steven Spielberg, and everyone in between, he’s a true Hollywood legend. He’s the only actor to have worked with each of these directing greats: Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and Steven Spielberg.
He starred in top-grossing movies throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Films like Rain Man , The Color of Money , Born on the Fourth of July , Top Gun , Mission: Impossible , Jerry Maguire , and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles were not only top-grossing but some of cinema’s best. Besides the support Cruise gives to Scientology, he’s a generous contributor to many causes. He supports the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, UNICEF, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Dolly Parton
Known for: “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene” and “9 to 5”
Net worth: $500 million
Dolly Parton grew up dirt poor on a dilapidated tobacco farm in Tennessee near the Great Smoky Mountains, but she had a dream. Dolly began composing songs as a little girl. She rose to become the Queen of Nashville. Her wide smile, platinum blonde hairdo, and well-endowed features are an enduring symbol of the 1970s. Dolly distinguished Country Music with her presence. Her fabulous talent help popularize the twangy country-western folk music genre. And, on top of it all, with that adorable southern accent, she’s just so lovable. Back at home, the country legend’s theme park, Dollywood, is the most popular tourist attraction in the state.
She played opposite Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and starred in another blockbuster hit called 9 to 5. She wrote the film’s catchy theme song and played the lead. She composed the tune, as she sat tapping her nails during the rehearsal of the film. The song won an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Over her career, she has won nine Grammys and two Academy Award nominations. In all, she was nominated for 47 Grammys!
Al Pacino
Known for: The Godfather and Scarface
Net worth: $165 million
Throughout the Seventies and Eighties, Al Pacino played one badass mother-flipper after another. He got his start with The Godfather . Francis Ford Coppola happened to catch Pacino in The Panic in Needle Park as a heroin addict, and he could not, not-imagine Pacino’s face as mafia boss Michael Corleone. Good call. The performance remains one of cinema’s greatest achievements. He received his first Oscar nomination, of many, in that breakout film. The Godfather franchise would make him a very wealthy film legend. It’s a stark contrast to his harsh beginnings coming of age in the Bronx. A bit of a trouble maker, smoking and drinking at age nine, you can bet he got into his share of street fights. The acting was a strong interest by middle school. He began studying method acting and getting parts, but the struggles continued, scraping together bus fares to get to auditions.
Pacino received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for Serpico, but he didn’t win the Best Actor Award until 1993 for Scent of a Woman playing the part of a blind ex-Army officer. He starred in other notable films including,... .And Justice for All, Dog Day Afternoon and Frankie and Johnny. He’s not done. Look out for these 2019 flicks: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s film, The Irishman, and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Pacino.
John Travolta
Known for: Saturday Night Fever and Grease
Net worth: $170 million
“ Night fever, night fever / We know how to do it ” –Bee Gees. John Travolta certainly did! He was the face and the moves of that groovy ’70s disco tune. Between the Bee Gees and John T., Saturday Night Fever was a monumental hit. Disco-mania peaked with the release of the film, and his role as a working-class disco dancer won him both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination.
In the meantime, snagging the lead as Dany Zuko when he was just 18, Travolta toured with the 1971Broadway hit musical “Grease.” Several years later Grease, the movie, opened to wild success. Onto Urban Cowboy. A few flops followed. When the year 1980 rolled in, disco music and John Travolta tanked. After starring in Tarantino’s hit flick Pulp Fiction, Travolta’s career bounced high on a rebound with a box office and cult-following success, plus another Oscar nomination came his way. Movies like Get Shorty, Face/Off, Battlefield Earth, and Primary Colors have kept him in Hollywood’s good graces since then.